For instance, the group created a “Nerve Center” at Golf.com for The Masters, a tool that continuously aggregated expert opinions, social media conversations and leaderboards, and updates from The Masters in a single window. The group managed to sell several new sponsorships around the tool, with advertisers including Fidelity, Nike, Calloway, TaylorMade and Adidas. Golf.com ad revenue surrounding its coverage of The Masters was up 138 percent over last year, the group says.At SI.com, the group reported a 13 percent jump in revenue surrounding its 2010 swimsuit content, driven in part by its ramped up video package (about 100 videos in all) which attracted advertisers including Dodge, Heineken, Samsung and Mercedes Benz. SI.com’s coverage of this year’s NFL Draft was its most lucrative in the brand’s history, it says, having won buys from advertisers such as Levitra, Sheraton, the History Channel and IBM. April marked the eighth consecutive month of traffic growth online at Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated Group. The publisher says SI Digital sites—including SI.com and Golf.com—saw a 16 percent spike, year-over-year, in unique visitors in April.SI.com specifically saw unique visitors in April climb 17 percent year-over-year, the company says. Year-to-date, meanwhile, uniques have grown 30 percent. Golf.com reported a 53 percent spike in uniques for April, fueled in part by interest in The Masters golf tournament.Revenue at SI Digital also is on the rise, the company says, growing 35 percent year-over-year. Time Inc. declined to offer any specific revenue numbers but says the sales increases have been driven by a number of events and SI franchises.read more

Folio: What do you see as the biggest challenge for your brand in 2017? 2016 had its share of losses, but not all of them were tragic. Mental Floss, for instance, said goodbye to its print magazine at the end of the year, after a short, but fun, 15-year run. And while many were saddened or disappointed to see the unique magazine go, the brand pledged to forge ahead as a digital-only publication. To some in this industry, folding a print magazine can be interpreted as the beginning of the end, but the Dennis Publishing brand doesn’t see it that way. In fact, it argues that shedding its print product opens new doors. Ethan Trex: We are really trying to stick with what works well for our digital audience. We don’t want to just pour products from the magazine over to the web. But we do want to keep that editorial spirit and maintain the trust we earned. The playbook is already there. Amie Deutch: The decision to fold the magazine wasn’t necessarily a difficult one. One of the interesting things about us is that we have an ecosystem of about 20 million readers, whereas the magazine only had 125,000. So now those print resources are being devoted to video and the website, which is undergoing a redesign. We will also be focusing more on branded content. Folio: What about from an editorial standpoint, Ethan? But in terms of our own challenges, we don’t have any endemic advertising. We aren’t an epicurean brand for instance, we have no endemic business because we’re general interest and cover a wide variety of topics. The beauty in that is we can go after every category, but you have to slice and dice our research numbers. For instance, we have a lot of readers that are pet owners and spend a lot of money on their pets. This article originally appeared on Folio:’s sister site, MinOnline. Deutch: I think any content can lend itself to video. We can take an idea and add custom content and add a video component to it. I think what’s interesting is that the service editorial will create wonderful opportunities for our partners to tell valuable stories about their products. Deutch: From a business standpoint, that legacy of being grounded in a print product is important. But I think Mental Floss is about discovery. Maybe you weren’t aware of Mental Floss until someone shared a story, but once you found us you fell in love with the brand. I think our unique voice is inviting. We aren’t snarky. We don’t talk down to our readers. While we can distill key points from a complicated subject, it’s still a very inviting environment. Trex: Part of it is from our pedigree of having a magazine for years. It gave us credibility. You can look at lots of sites on the web that make promises, but we have a 15-year history that people know and know that it’s accurate. Trex: One of the great things of having the publishing team is we get those insights. We know things about our readers anecdotally, but the research opens up fun opportunities for us editorially because we know we have those pet-owner readers and can make editorial content around that and give value to our readers. With that in mind, we wanted to check back in on Mental Floss to hear how its digital-only life is going thus far and find out what’s next. We reached out to EVP and Publisher Amie Deutch and Editorial Director Ethan Trex. Folio: Will video continue to be a growing priority for you? Deutch: I could get on a soapbox and talk about programmatic. I think it serves its place, but I think publisher brands should matter. What we offer is great content in an environment that is meaningful to the reader—and that’s what an advertiser wants. Our job in 2017 is to make the pendulum swing back towards the quality publisher. Trex: Video is such a broad term at this point on the web. It’s not even what it was two years ago. Every platform has its own requirement, and we’re taking a different approach to each one. We have a successful YouTube channel with over a million followers and it’s mostly long form. Facebook is obviously different, it’s people snacking on video when they’re on their phones. So now we want to shift towards service and maintain that Mental Floss sensibility. Folio: You had a unique niche in print, but there are so many digital publications with, dare I say, quirky, smart content. How does Mental Floss stand out? Folio: Now that Mental Floss is digital only, what new products have you developed for your partners?read more

Dan Cohen AUTHOR DOD should expedite and streamline cleanups of sites with contaminated groundwater resulting from defense activities that are directly impacting civilian access to drinking water, according to a “sense of Congress” included in the conference report to the fiscal 2019 defense authorization bill. The provision, section 317, calls for the department and the military services “to reduce the financial burden on state and local government who are bearing significant costs of cleanup,” as well as to “continue to engage with and help allay local community concerns about the safety of the drinking water.”While addressing the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in local drinking water supplies stemming from the military’s past use of firefighting foam has become a top environmental priority for DOD over the past several years, the language does not single out that class of contaminants. A separate provision of the conference report requires the department to outline its plans for cleaning up on- and off-base drinking water supplies contaminated with PFAS after the Environmental Protection Agency establishes a regulatory standard for those chemicals.Section 317 also calls for the department to “seek opportunities to accelerate environmental restoration efforts where feasible, to include programming additional resources for response actions, investing in technology solutions that may expedite response actions, improving contracting procedures, increasing contracting capacity, and seeking opportunities for partnerships and other cooperative approaches.” The conferees direct the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment to brief the House and Senate Armed Services committees on initiatives being pursued to accelerate environmental restoration efforts within 120 days after the bill is enacted. The briefing was included in the legislative language in the original House provision but the conferees moved it to the measure’s joint explanatory statement.Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Caitlin Russellread more

Tags Samsung’s foldable phone line may be expanding soon. CNET Samsung’s family of foldable smartphones may be tripling soon.The South Korean electronics giant is developing a pair of new foldable handsets following its unveiling of its Galaxy Fold, people familiar with the company’s plans told Bloomberg. One of the devices would fold away from the user like the Huawei Mate X instead of inward, as the Galaxy Fold does.A phone that folds vertically is expected to be unveiled later this year or early next year, Bloomberg reported. An in-display fingerprint sensor may also be incorporated into the foldable lineup.When Samsung introduced its Galaxy Fold at Unpacked on February, it stole most of the spotlight from the other four phones the company announced there as well, including a 5G phone. Though many are intrigued by the Galaxy Fold, its consumer appeal may be limited its uncommon design, limited availability and price.At $1,980, the Fold costs twice the starting price of the Galaxy Note 9 or iPhone XS. The Mate X, which was also unveiled last month, tantalized audience members until its $2,600 price tag was announced, and then oohs and ahhs turned to gasps.Samsung didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 0 Post a comment Share your voice Foldable Phones Tablets Phones Samsungread more

BSE closes points 131.22 up on Nov 173.3K views00:00 / 00:00- 00:00:0000:00BSE closes points 131.22 up on Nov 173.3K viewsBusinessNew Delhi, Nov 17 (ANI): Trading at the Bombay Stock Exchange today closed 131.22 points up to stand at 28,177.88. At the National Stock Exchange the Nifty closed 40.85 points up to stand at 8,430.75. JSWENERGY and RURAL ELECTRIFICATION CORPORATION LTD. were among the top gainers of Group A with an increase of 12.13% and 10.25% along with NCC and Bajaj Finance Limited with an increase of 9.54% and 8.62% respectively, while the top losers of Group A include RASOYA PROTEINS LTD. and BALKRISHNA INDUSTRIES LTD. with a decrease of 19.91% and 7.03% along with PUNJ LLOYD LTD. and DEN with a decrease of 5.67% and 5.11% at the close of the markets. The Auto sector is up 266.87 points at 18,926.80 while the banking sector is up 83.16 points at 20,201.93 and the reality sector is up 5.58 points at 1,674.94. The Indian currency is up 0.02% at Rs 61.73 per dollar.Ventuno Web Player 4.50New Delhi, Nov 17 (ANI): Trading at the Bombay Stock Exchange today closed 131.22 points up to stand at 28,177.88. At the National Stock Exchange the Nifty closed 40.85 points up to stand at 8,430.75. JSWENERGY and RURAL ELECTRIFICATION CORPORATION LTD. were among the top gainers of Group A with an increase of 12.13% and 10.25% along with NCC and Bajaj Finance Limited with an increase of 9.54% and 8.62% respectively, while the top losers of Group A include RASOYA PROTEINS LTD. and BALKRISHNA INDUSTRIES LTD. with a decrease of 19.91% and 7.03% along with PUNJ LLOYD LTD. and DEN with a decrease of 5.67% and 5.11% at the close of the markets. The Auto sector is up 266.87 points at 18,926.80 while the banking sector is up 83.16 points at 20,201.93 and the reality sector is up 5.58 points at 1,674.94. The Indian currency is up 0.02% at Rs 61.73 per dollar.read more

REUTERS/Adnan Abidi [Representational Image]A 14-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped and set ablaze by some miscreants in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar on Friday, May 24. The victim’s body was found in a charred state at her house.According to reports, the girl used to work at a brick kiln and stayed at a makeshift room. The autopsy report suggested that the girl died of asphyxiation and burn injuries.The UP police have booked seven people for the heinous crime, although none of them has been arrested. The police said that they have not yet arrested the accused since they are still gathering evidence of the incident.The girl along with her family used to work at the brick kiln and lived in a room adjacent to it. The victim’s father had gone to the town to get some medicines on Friday evening after her mother fell ill. He left her along with her brother, 12, and the incident took place after he left the kiln. He was informed the next day that his daughter’s body was found in a charred stateAccording to the police, the girl’s family did not suspect rape initially but filed a complaint against the brick kiln owner and six others claiming so. The father claimed that she was taken by two men who work in the area and was gang-raped, after which they burnt her alive. The girl’s slippers and some clothes were recovered from the crime spot.”An FIR has been registered on the basis of a complaint by the victim’s father against the brick kiln owner and six others on charges of gang rape, murder and sections of the SC/ST Atrocities Act. The allegations of rape have not been confirmed. But the investigation is pending and arrests will be made as per evidence,” said the area’s Circle Officer, reports The Indian Express.The girl’s father also claimed that since the makeshift room does not have electricity or any other inflammable materials, how can the room catch fire. He alleged the accused to have set the dress on fire as to misrepresent it as an accident. He claimed that everyone knows what happened with his daughter but choose to remain silent and there is immense pressure on anyone who wants to speak out.The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has taken cognizance of the case, police said. A statement of the girl’s father will also be recorded before a magistrate, adds the report.read more

Buildings are reflected on the glass windows of the NSE (National Stock Exchange) building in Mumbai, India, December 27, 2016.Reuters fileThe Indian equity market declined on Wednesday with the S&P BSE Sensex losing over 300 points during the afternoon session.The weakness in the domestic indices came on the back of a similar trend in the Asian markets along with a sharp decline in rupee and a slowdown in the manufacturing PMI data, analysts said.Most sectoral indices traded in the negative, led by auto, metal and banking stocks. The S&P BSE auto index lost 534.70 points on weak December auto sale figures.The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange also declined over 100 points to trade around 10,800 points.At 1.20 p.m., the Nifty50 traded at 10,807.35, lower by 102.75 points or 0.94 per cent from the previous close of 10,910.10 points.The Sensex, which had opened at 36,198.13, traded at 35,932.66 points, lower by 321.91 points or 0.89 per cent from the previous close of 36,254.57 points.So far, it touched an intra-day high of 36,236.70 and a low of 35,866.30 points.The Indian currency slumped 45 paise on Tuesday to trade at 69.89 per dollar (around 1.20 p.m.), against the previous close of 69.45 per dollar.Also, the decline in the Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index released during the day subdued the market sentiments. The index declined to 53.2 in December, from 54 in November.read more

Share Photo via Twitter @ChangeofplanZ1Police say six Houston men have been arrested at a South Texas border checkpoint and charged with stealing $88,000 from an ATM in Laredo.Laredo police spokesman Joe Baeza (by-AY’-zuh) said Thursday that the suspects are charged with aggravated robbery and engaging in organized criminal activity.Police believe the suspects Tuesday robbed a worker servicing an outdoor ATM, fled in an SUV, then switched to a car that was later stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint.Baeza says five men in the car were detained after cash, believed from the holdup, was found in the trunk of the vehicle. A sixth suspect in another car was also arrested.Laredo police have contacted Houston police investigating ATM-related robberies. In December, ATMs were stolen from the lobbies of five Houston hotels.read more

JORGE SANHUEZA-LYON / KUT NEWSHouston in August 2017 days after Hurricane Harvey hit.The City of Houston’s Housing and Community Development Department (HCDD) announced Wednesday it is adding five experts on disaster recovery, affordable housing and finance to its staff as part of the ongoing efforts related to the post-Harvey recovery.According to a news release from the HCDD, the experts will focus on meeting the extensive short-term housing needs of Harvey survivors and preparing for the long-term federal disaster recovery funds expected to be available for Houston in late summer.“We have to ramp up if we are to meet the needs of our residents who still cannot return to their homes,” noted Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.Tom McCasland, director of the HCDD, said the department strategically selected the new staff to fill gaps and increase capacity in the fields of finance, disaster recovery, policy development, constituent services and compliance. Shareread more

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines struggled to recover Thursday from a massive computer outage, as several hundred more flights were cancelled or delayed around the country for a second straight day.Airline executives said a router breakdown set off a chain of failures in critical technology systems a day earlier. Backup systems didn’t work as expected, they said.Southwest said that “most systems” had recovered and were functioning by Thursday morning. After “a day of recovery,” the airline hoped to be operating normally on Friday, CEO Gary Kelly said.By Thursday evening, Southwest had cancelled more than 600 flights and 2,200 more were delayed, according to tracking service FlightStats Inc. Those numbers were very similar to Wednesday, when the airline said it cancelled nearly 700 flights and FlightStats said 2,100 were delayed.For hours after the outage started, airline employees had to check in passengers manually and couldn’t take new reservations. The company’s website crashed – Kelly estimated that Southwest might have lost between $5 million and $10 million in ticket sales because customers couldn’t book flights.More news: GLP Worldwide introduces first-ever Wellness programs“We have significant redundancies built into our mission-critical systems, and those redundancies did not work,” Kelly told reporters on a conference call. “We need to understand why, and make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”Southwest has an aging technology infrastructure, but Kelly said the airline has been making “significant investments” to upgrade it. It expects to replace the longstanding reservations system next year – at a cumulative cost of $500 million – and replace other key systems over the next three to five years.Chief Operating Officer Mike Van de Ven said when a router failed Wednesday, it slowed the airline’s technology systems so much that other functions weren’t usable. He said router failures aren’t uncommon, but this outage was unusually severe. It took crews about 12 hours to restore most systems to working order.When the outage hit, Southwest took the unusual step of briefly holding all departing flights at their gates.More news: Apply now for AQSC’s agent cruise ratesWith so many flights cancelled on Wednesday, Southwest knew that a large number of passengers would try to fly Thursday. To bounce back better, the airline reduced its load, cancelling more than 200 flights or 5 per cent of its daily schedule even before the day’s first flight. It warned passengers to expect long lines, and to arrive at the airport early.Southwest suffered a similar outage last October, resulting in about 800 delayed flights. It blamed that breakdown on a faulty software application. Share Southwest says technology outage fixed but more flights cut Friday, July 22, 2016 Source: The Associated Press << Previous PostNext Post >>read more